


The choices made today could change the world

by thelittle_startrooper



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben is here!, I worked so hard on this, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sibling Bonding, Vanya Hargreeves Deserves Better, and therapy, i hope you enjoy, in this house we don't like luther, lots of therapy, she also needs a hug, there's no incest here cause that shit's icky, they all do really, we love ben!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 07:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18191765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelittle_startrooper/pseuds/thelittle_startrooper
Summary: If the world ends now, he thinks, there are much worse ways to go.Klaus unknowingly changes the course of history, and starts to understand Vanya a bit better along the way.





	The choices made today could change the world

**Author's Note:**

> This was heavily inspired by this Tumblr post: http://lesbuchanan.tumblr.com/post/183590196144/it-makes-me-sad-that-klaus-and-vanya-dont
> 
> Rated Teen for a lot of swearing, cause Klaus and Vanya are angry, and that's okay. They're allowed to be.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Klaus doesn’t believe Luther. Not that he ever does- and he makes sure Luther knows it- but this is too far. Vanya isn’t evil. She’s just scared, and Klaus knows how that feels, knows every time the dead call to him, reach out to grasp him, scream for his help. He knows how it feels to be locked somewhere dark, and cold and lonely with no chance of escape. He knows that feeling of helplessness. Klaus doesn’t want Vanya to feel that.

When they were kids, Vanya and Klaus bonded over the fact that they felt useless. Klaus had always been relegated to lookout on missions, and after Ben died he was labeled as a screw-up and insane. He was less help on missions, since he was either high, or talking to Ben, and apparently his siblings were too dumb to put two and two together and think ‘oh shit, maybe Klaus isn’t insane, he’s just talking to his dead brother he was always really close with’. Klaus shakes his head. He’s getting carried away. He halfheartedly follows Luther away from the chamber, but not before turning back and whispering to Vanya. She can’t hear him, but he hopes she’ll read his lips.

“ _I’m gonna get you out, I promise,_ ” he mouths.

Half an hour later, he’s in his room talking to Ben.

“We gotta do something! Maybe we could distract people.”

“How do you propose to do that,” Ben asks, his arms crossed.

“You could make ghost sounds.” Ben raises an eyebrow.

“Ghost sounds?”

“Look, I don’t know what ordinary people hear when ghosts talk. If they hear anything at all. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve always been like this!” Klaus pulls on his damaged army jacket, making his way toward the chamber.

“I’m happy to help, Klaus, but I’m not gonna be ridiculous,” Ben says. Klaus rolls his eyes.

“It’s not ridiculous, it’s actually a really good idea.” He turns to Ben and looks at him imploringly, but Ben has had years to get used to Klaus’s various attempts at convincing him to do things. Ben just looks back.

“Okay, fine, don’t help me. I’ll do it myself.” Ben just sighs. He’s going to go with Klaus anyway, because the alternative is talking to other deceased, which is boring, but he lets Klaus have this victory.

They make their way to the chamber they never knew existed, and Klaus runs toward Vanya. She sees him and starts hammering on the door, and honestly, Klaus doesn’t blame her. He starts to turn the wheel, Ben helping; slowly it starts to turn. It shrieks, the way metal on metal does, and Klaus cringes with every turn. He shoots Ben an apologetic glance. Ben smiles in answer, and with a final heave they hear the lock click. Klaus grins and whoops in victory. He pulls open the door. Vanya falls forward into his arms, sobbing and thanking him over and over. Klaus doesn’t know how to respond; he’s not great with emotions, and he’s never been super affectionate with most of his siblings, but Vanya needs a brother right now. So he wraps his arms around her and looks at Ben who gives him an encouraging thumbs up.

“Come on, Vanya, we gotta get outta here, before Luther figures out what happened,” Klaus says. He doesn’t want to rush Vanya, but they only have so long. He knows Allison will try to stop Luther, and Diego too, but Luther can be ruthless when he wants to be. So Klaus grabs Vanya’s hand and they run, just like when they were kids, Ben following behind. They don’t stop until Vanya gets to her apartment and locks the door.

Klaus takes a moment to look around. He’s never been to his sister’s place before, and he really likes it. It’s full of character. The comfy, slightly worn in couch, the little table with a red typewriter- _the one she used to write her book, the book that somehow puts Klaus in a good light, that doesn’t say he’s a fuck up_ -, the kitchen with its island and cute mug. Her violin rests on the couch, and Klaus can imagine Vanya playing it by the window and watching the world pass by.

He perches on the arm of a chair, unsure of what to do now that he’s here.

“Thanks for saving me. Sorry about your jacket.” Klaus looks up to where Vanya is making tea in the kitchen and smiles. He barely notices that his jacket is wet with Vanya's tears; or maybe he just doesn’t care.

“Don’t worry about it. You would have done the same for me.” Vanya smiles at him. The memory hangs between them, untouched in the quiet of Vanya’s apartment. Klaus means it when he says that, remembers when Vanya saved him.

_It’s been a few months since Ben died, and the other siblings have stopped grieving. Mostly. Diego sometimes gets all quiet when he thinks of something Ben would like, and Allison sometimes starts to say Ben’s name then stops and frowns. For the most part though, they move past it, and laughter fills the academy as much as it ever could. The rest of them still look at Klaus with pity. He hates it._

_At first they say something about it. Klaus says that he and Ben are gonna go get waffles, and the other Hargreeves siblings exchange looks before Allison smiles kindly and says,_

_“Klaus, sweetie, Ben is dead.” Klaus stares at her. She’s already taller than him, so he lifts his head and crosses his arms and says,_

_“I know. But Ben told me he wants waffles. So we’re gonna get some. He says you’re welcome to come.” Allison shakes her head. She opens her mouth to continue, but Klaus spins around on his heel in the sassiest way possible and stalks out of the academy. Diego isn’t surprised. He’s the only one who listens to Klaus anymore. He wants to be there for him. After all, they did lose a brother that they were both close with, and Klaus needs someone who won’t just be family, who will also be a friend. (Diego doesn’t know it now, but he’s the only one apart from Vanya who doesn’t give up on Klaus. Years from now, Diego will sponsor his brother in rehab and will sacrifice his place in the Police Academy for it. He’ll be patient with his brother, and he’ll be the only one Klaus tells about Vietnam, about Dave.)_

_So when Allison asks him if this has happened before, Diego clenches his fists and says,_

_“If you c-cared about him, y-you’d know.”_

_Klaus leaves the academy more and more. He finds it stifling, and hates being watched by their sorry excuse for a father, and Allison and Luther still look at him sadly when he and Ben are talking. Diego doesn’t, and Klaus loves him for it. Vanya doesn’t either, but she knows what it’s like to miss someone. Ever since Five went missing, she’s been quieter than usual, and people seem to forget she’s around. It used to be Five who made the other Hargreeves include her, Five who would tell Vanya she played violin really well, Five who would make peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches when she was sad._

_So when Klaus leaves the academy for the last time on his sixteenth birthday, he stops by her room. For a while he just stands there and watches her play, unsure of what to do. He originally just meant to say goodbye, like he did to Diego, but now he’s not sure he wants to. It feels different, somehow, like since he and Diego have spent so much time together and plan to keep in touch it’s not as painful. But Klaus truly doesn’t know if he’ll speak to his other siblings again, and with Luther and Allison, that’s fine. They never were his favourite siblings._

_But Vanya, she’s kind. She always has been. And Klaus can’t bring himself to just say goodbye._

_So he knocks gently on the doorframe, and Vanya turns and smiles. Klaus smirks._

_“Wanna go get doughnuts?”_

_They’re laughing as they make their way to Griddy’s one last time, Ben telling jokes and Klaus repeating them for the benefit of Vanya, when Luther and Allison appear. They’re in their dumb uniforms, so it’s some kind of mission, and Klaus is glad he missed out, cause otherwise he’d probably be stuck as lookout. Diego is conspicuously missing, which is what sets off the red flags. Diego loves being a superhero, cause it means he saves people, and Klaus is starting to worry that something has happened to him. His throat is closing up, and everything is spinning. Diego can’t be dead, he can’t lose his other brother, not now-_

_“Klaus? Are you listening?” Luther’s voice pulls him back enough to focus on what’s happening. He looks at Luther, and One plows on like nothing happened._

_“Dad wants us to bring you back. He’s worried you’re distancing yourself from us.”_

_“So what if I am?” Klaus counters. Ben stands next to him and spits out a ‘Yeah, Luther, what if he is?’. Klaus appreciates the backup._

_“Dad says that you have to come back with us. He also says that if you don’t come back within an hour, he’s gonna lock you in the mausoleum.”_

_Klaus falters. After the first time Reginald locked him in there for three days straight, Klaus promised himself he would never go back there. Ever. All he wants now is to spend some quality time with his sister and to get some of Agnes’s doughnuts. He’s about to tell Luther to fuck off, but Vanya beats him to it._

_“Oh my god, Luther! All you ever care about is what Dad says, what Dad wants. Do you have any original thoughts?”_

_Luther is surprised. So is Allison, but really, the fact that Luther is shaken up? It’s amazing. Klaus laughs._

_“Klaus doesn’t have to go anywhere. He’s sixteen. He’ll be an adult in two years, and if he didn’t leave now, he would’ve then.”_

_Luther tries to cut her off, but Vanya continues. “I don’t blame him for wanting to get out of that house, anyway. It’s stifling, and big and empty, and if you aren’t a part of Luther’s fan club you’re ignored. So I’m going to help him leave, and if you have a problem, you can try to stop us. It’s three against one, after all.”_

_Allison looks confused. “There’s only two of you.”_

_“Not anymore,” says a voice, and Diego is there, and Klaus has never felt so much love before._

 

Vanya hands him a mug of tea. He smiles, grateful, and is about to ask if Ben can have some, but Vanya remembers. She places Ben’s on the table next to Klaus, and now Klaus wants to cry. He isn’t sure if Vanya realises how much that simple action means to him. How relieving it is to finally see with his own eyes that someone in this dysfunctional family doesn’t think he’s completely fucked up.

They both are, thanks to their childhoods, and that’s never gonna change. In every universe, Klaus feels like he and Vanya will always have similar issues, but he’s glad that in this one, he gets to try and rebuild some kind of a relationship.

“So, Vanya, how has life been treating you?”

Vanya laughs, and soon Klaus joins in. It feels good to finally be able to just breathe, to feel like they’re normal siblings hanging out after work, like they haven’t had their lives ruined and their childhoods ripped away. Klaus sits there, and listens to Vanya talk about all her adventures, and it’s nice. _If the world ends now,_ he thinks, _there are much worse ways to go._


End file.
